The above title-question may well be followed by another implicit question such as, "Why are many of them behaving like hooligans?".

At least the media of various types and domains are portraying them as such although some purported facts are seriously questionable.

Is this spate of misdemeanour incidences a reflection of the boys' true characters? Or are they merely symptoms of a deeper operational phenomenon in these so called 'elite' schools?

The fact that these boys were supposed to be the cream among the Malay boys in this country at some stage of their academic and co-curricular assessment baffle many concerned quarters.

These paradoxical situations persuade the inquisitive of minds to suspect a rather certain deep-seated active phenomenon operating in these full boarding schools dominated by Malays to explain these whole scenarios rather than mere condemnation of the 'naughty' boys because of their actions.

Being a product of such a school myself and observing the emotional pains suffered by my two more talented children during their tumultuous stints of variable durations at such schools deepened my suspicion for the existence of an operational phenomenon that may explain most, if not all, of the recent adverse incidences in the so called 'elite' Malay boarding schools.

My own experience in one of the newer boarding schools in the 70s created by the government of the day with the intention of increasing the educational facilities for the rural Malays makes me reflect on similar happenings.

Emotional, psychological bond

Boarding school students are close to one another emotionally and perhaps also psychologically. We mutually empathised our problems easily. We knew one another well including many personal details.

We played, joked, laughed, bathed, ate, studied, suffered and sometimes, being adolescent boys, were 'naughty' together.

I remember one incident when one of us, considered to be studious, serious, high academic achiever and of gentle and quiet character, out of a sudden 'tortured' a junior to our great surprise as the latter dismayed him with some perceived displeasure when the former was seriously studying for his examination.

By the current media frenzy standard of appraising such an event, this seemingly good student would have been instantaneously labelled a hooligan ( samseng ).

This clear mismatch between the student's 'natural' personality and the adverse (re)action taken during the episode of intensely perceived crisis situation demands serious deliberation by experts especially adolescent psychologist, psychiatrist and educationist.

The recent scenarios in boarding schools especially those categorised as 'elite' such as Sekolah Tunku Abdul Rahman (Star) and Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) are not much different than what happened in the past.

Intuitively speaking, there must be some sort of a psychological undercurrent operating in these Malay boarding schools.

In fact, by observing any growing adolescent and reading about the psychological dynamics of this age group especially those confined to boarding schools here and elsewhere such as Star, MCKK, Vajiravudh or even Eton, one can understand the perpetual conflict between the disparate forces these youngsters have to endure during their stay in the hostels amid growing psycho-biological changes within themselves.

However, this common adolescent psychological undercurrent alone would not explain the extreme deviations in demeanour among a minority of students. Taking the four above-mentioned 'elite' schools as a mixed sample from diverse cultural backgrounds, it is worthwhile to tease out some of the commonalities and differences between them.

Hierarchy and traditions

In boarding schools, although students within the same batch tend to be thoroughly cohered to one another as described above, the relationship between students of different batches on the other hand is dictated by a strong sense of hierarchy. The hostel students are well integrated horizontally but not so vertically. This rather feudalistic hierarchical sense is further enhanced by the equally strong embrace of traditions in these schools.

Some of these traditions go back decades or even as far as centuries depending on the school's historical relation to antiquity. Many of the traditions may not reflect the modernisation and democratisation character of current education processes at least in ideas and sometimes in forms.

Ironically, the harmonious and sustainable life of students in hostels still depends on this inherent hierarchical relationship between senior and junior students. This permeating hierarchical structure and function seems to be taken for granted by a majority of students (and even by parents and teachers) and hence the stable social equilibrium in hostels is ensured most of the time.

One can easily imagine what will happen if there is a breakdown in the observation of this hierarchy especially by students with highly democratised middle class professional parents with minimal empathy for hierarchy or 'traditions' of the schools.

The (re)actions by the (over)zealous self-proclaimed and self-styled vanguards of hierarchical traditions of the revered schools will come to the fore to redress the balance and not infrequently this involved physical actions which are sometimes out of control.

Amid all these, one is rather perplexed by the role of the seemingly well-behaved prefects of the school specially selected to assist teachers to ensure discipline among students.

In fact, this form of hierarchical structure is not unique only to students. It is an observed phenomenon in any closed system of co-habitation when there are more than one strata of inhabitants. Army camps are one such example but the operational existence of hierarchical structure there, is universally accepted by all sectors of society despite the beatings and sometimes injuries inflicted on recruits in the name of tradition and inculcation of sturdy discipline.

Stark contrast

One stark contrast between Star-MCKK and Vajiravudh-Eton is the nature or posture of these schools in the context of their surrounding local contemporary educational systems and policies.

While Vajiravudh-Eton, being essentially private schools, rich in traditions intertwined deep in nationalism with perhaps a persistent smack of aristocracy, is truly elitist in its hierarchical relationship between students, system governance and running of the schools in comparison to their respective local public educational systems.

On the other hand, Star-MCKK are merely another Malay-dominated public Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan with the exception that all students stay in hostels and their minds perhaps erroneously mesmerised with the so-called traditions.

Some quarters may argue that Star-MCKK and the likes are elitist in nature by virtue of its rigorous student selection process, insisting on high academic and co-curricular achievement at various school levels.

However, it is not fully known whether the common yardsticks used for this purpose, namely the UPSR and PMR examinations, could predict the sustainability of high academic achievement and performance over a long term. These two examinations are, after all, naturally intended to be diagnostic rather than prognostic.

Another proof against the above premise is the persistently good or even better SPM results in the newer, more 'egalitarian' MRSMs and some ordinary day-type schools. Furthermore, in view of the constant high speed of new knowledge generation in the contemporary world, the episodic performances in examinations (especially at school level) may not be as important as the continuous inculcation of the life-long learning culture to create and maintain a knowledge-based society among the critical mass of our populace.

The reality of the operational socio-educational system in Star-MCKK does not support the induced elitist psychological posture of these students, being fed in at their selection time, inappropriately mesmerised by their own teachers and parents and even enhanced so sporadically by the media .

Casual observation of recent incidences show that they always happened near examination times when senior students are perpetually under intense pressure to study and the relaxed juniors with their own inclination to be naughty when the seniors are not watching them anymore.

If the effort to understand and tackle these problems is serious, it is worthwhile to investigate the seeds of all these episodes rather than merely punishing the many assailants. It is said that parents have to treat their youngsters as friends in the later process of upbringing.

Since teachers especially hostels wardens assume the parental roles in boarding schools in many ways, it is imperative that they constantly befriend these students rather than maintaining a rigid hierarchical relationship using frequent punitive confrontational measures to restore order.

Wrong generalisation

This communication is not intended to fully answer the perplexing question of the title, let alone to defend the misbehaving students. It merely aims to suggest some possible bases and insights for a more systemic exploratory investigation and qualitative and quantitative study by all the relevant stakeholders of education in our country so that the aspirations and potentials of these talented young Malay boys are not thrashed by sheer historical circumstances.

Since the problem of violence in general is more in the minds of the assailants as much as, if not more than the actual episodes, it is worthwhile to study their psycho-social profiles in a broader perspective.

One wonders whether the current misbehaviour of these boys share any common denominator with the national and in fact universal phenomenon of relative academic underachievement of boys especially at the advanced level of education.

Amid the enthusiasm of many people to address the issue of violence among boarding school boys, there is a hurried and simplified tendency to wrongly generalise the matter at hand to include the real problem of hooliganism and gansgterism in urban day schools. These students are quite often from different socio-economically disadvantaged family backgrounds living in squalid slumps or squatter areas on the fringe of urbanism.

Perhaps it is timely to remind the (middle-class) parents and the prospective high school students that public boarding schools are essentially created to enhance the educational potential and capability of the talented rural pupils (who happen to be Malays in the majority) who are devoid of adequate and conducive facilities in their familial environment due to their underprivileged socio-economic circumstances in the pursuit of their studies.

In general, all public schools in the country have a peculiar idiosyncracy in their structures and functions which are significantly different from the 'less-public' school system and schooling systems in developed countries.

This functional reality of our public education system holds true even for the so-called elite boarding schools which have long been stripped off its touch of aristocratic hue and colonial-type glitter and glamour. The realisation of the ideals which are parallel to the awareness of reality goes a long way to sustain a sound existential psychology and hence a reasonable behaviour.

ABU MARYAM is an academic, an administrator and a medical practitioner